Of the many proud traditions of Ottoman culture, few have achieved the world-wide fame of hookah smoking. Once confined to the Middle East and Near East regions, the hookah's notoriety was invigorated by Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and the stream of curious Westerners which followed thereafter. Painters, such as Eugene Delacroix and Jean-Leon Gerome, when depicting Oriental styles typically included a hookah as a symbol of the depicted culture. The hookah was elevated from a regional curiosity to a universal symbol of sophistication.
The hookah, which has maintained a constant popularity in the Middle East, presently enjoys in American culture a unique, niched function. Hookah smoking combines community and relaxation into a single event. Rarely does one witness a group smokers crowded about a single cigarette, cigar, or pipe. Though hookahs are often designed with a single smoke outlet; the presence of multiple hoses, each capable of simultaneous use, emanating from a single smoking instrument is unique to the hookah. Multiple hose hookahs form the centerpieces of hookah clubs in which hookah smokers gather to unwind and converse with other community members. A hookah combines fashion, art, and function into a single device.
A basic hookah includes a bottle, a stem, at least one hose with a mouthpiece, and a burner. The hookah burner holds the hookah tobacco, frequently “massell.” Massell is a mixture of tobacco, molasses, and often a flavor or fruit extract. The molasses and fruit extract add a substantial amount of moisture to the massell that is missing in conventional tobacco. This added moisture makes massell more sensitive to the elements relative to conventional tobacco; prolonged exposure to air evaporates much of the moisture of massell and reduces its flavor. When properly protected, massell allows a smoker a more recreational, flavored smoke than the tobacco of cigars, cigarettes, pipes, and the like. An experienced hookah smoker will know to loosely distribute massell into a pile within the hookah burner to allow heat to evenly circulate through the pile.
The heat that ignites the massell derives from coals positioned above the hookah burner. The coals and massell preferably never contact one to the other. A common method of placing coals proximate to the massell involves spreading a foil upon the top of a hookah burner, punching holes in the foil, and then placing the coals onto the foil. The heat from the lighted coals travels through the holes in the foil to ignite portions of the massell. Particulates from the massell travel in the smoke created by the ignition down through the hookah burner into the hookah pipe.
The hookah stem is the smoke transport component of a hookah and is usually fabricated from brass, tin, or stainless steel. The stem transports the massell smoke from the burner to the hookah bottle, which is a cavern containing water. The bottle of the hookah is typically fabricated of glass or plastic and tends to be the most expressive portion of the hookah, ranging from translucent to wildly-colored. Within the cavern of the hookah bottle, the massell smoke is cooled by the water within. The cooled massell smoke then returns to the stem, though not through the same entrance by which the massell smoke enters the bottle. From the stem, the massell smoke travels through the hose and out of the mouthpiece.
There are presently two prominent versions of hookah structures: the Lebanese style and the Egyptian style. Although the aficionado will explain that there are many differences between the two styles, the practical layman would quickly note the obvious difference: the connection point between the stem and the hookah burner. The Egyptian style hookah pipe tapers upward into what is generally referred to as a male connection. The Egyptian style hookah burner includes a female connection which receives the pipe's male connection. In the Lebanese style hookah the burner has the tapered male connection and the pipe has the female connection to accept the Lebanese style hookah burner. In both styles, to allow a more airtight connection a collar is generally added to fit around the male connection.
Although hookahs are growing more advanced, there are still troubles common to hookahs. One of the greatest impediments to hookah smoking enjoyment is the problem of aggregated, stale wetted smoke. The stale, wetted smoke sits in the path of fresh smoke, the density frustrating the internal gas flow dynamics of the hookah and the taste of the wetted smoke corroding the fresh smoke as it passes through the stale cloud. The present invention goes a long way towards solving this lingering, troublesome issue.